Many fans were disappointed by the lack of wrestling on this week’s Raw. While promos help escalate angles each week, it’s the unbelievable athleticism from world class talent that makes sports entertainment more than just a soap opera. The trend in pro wrestling over the past 10 years has been about 40% sports and 60% entertainment during weekly cable broadcasts. Full 6-10 match cards are reserved almost solely for Pay Per Views now. If I paid $80 for a good seat to this week’s Raw, I would have been quite upset about the lack of in-ring action. So I’m here to remind you that there are other options and that brings us to this week’s Greatest Video Eeeeeever…video first then story and conclusion after the jump….
Title: Best Match Finish Ever!
Views: 210,080
Uploaded by camrivacam
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_C4S1XOnTY&feature=related]
The Story
This match took place in the quarterfinals of the Ted Petty Invitational 2006. While this was only the second time Claudio Castagnoli (red tights) and Mike Quackenbush (black shirt) had met in singles competition, the two were involved in several memorable tag matches. The first encounter between Castagnoli and Quackenbush occured at Chikara’s World Tag Grand Prix 2003. Castagnoli made his Chikara debut that night along side his tag partner Ares. Their tag team, Swi$$ Money Holding, battled the team of Mike Quackenbush and Chris Hero, The SuperFriends, in the semifinals. After 30 minutes, the contest was declared a draw and both teams were eliminated from the tournament.
Two years later, Castagnoli returned to the World Tag Grand Prix, this time with Arik Canon as his partner. While the 2003 event only featured 12 competing teams, the 2005 bracket was expanded to 32. Three days and 3o matches later, the final match was set: Castagnoli and Canon vs. The SuperFriends. On paper, the match should have been a special one. Unfortunately, Quackenbush’s partner Chris Hero had different plans. He turned on Quackenbush after 18 months of tag team success. Castagnoli and Canon won the tournment and along with Hero, went on to form the Kings of Wrestling. The Kings of Wrestling, now solely Castagnoli and Hero, are current Ring of Honor tag champs and have been for a record 300+ days.
Quackenbush has had a number of memorable matches and been wildly successful and wonderfully entertaining in the 6 years since the break up of the SuperFriends. To read more about his career, check out the profile we did on him last month! (Full disclosure: I chose this video before I even heard about/knew the video featured Quackenbush, but after watching this video and reading about him, I’m becoming a huge fan.)
Conclusion
The 1 minute and 12 seconds of wrestling seen in this video is some of the best wrestling you’ll see and it’s certainly better than anything the 2 mainstream companies have shown us in quite sometime. The indie circuit is filled with guys who work this hard every single night for a fraction of the money WWE guys make. I don’t mean to make this a public service announcement or a product placement post for indie wrestling, but do me, you and these guys a favor: find a local event, pay the $25 they ask for, buy merch and cheer loud because at the end of the day we watch wrestling because we love wrestling and so do guys like Quackenbush and Castagnoli.
5 out of 5 Fire Ants
-RS
